Elizabeth Taylor & Richard Burton: Cleopatra Turns 50 Today!

Still the most notorious movie of all time – for its record-setting cost overruns, for the scandalous extramarital affair of its two stars, and for how its out-of-control production brought down the entire administration of 20th Century-Fox – Cleopatra, with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, marks the 50th anniversary of its world premiere on June 12.

In tribute to the landmark, and Life magazine's lively coverage of the epic as the drama unfolded behind the scenes in Rome half a century ago, Life.com has assembled an eye-catching photo spread of several rare and even never-before-seen Cleopatra photographs by Paul Schutzer.

"Liz, on set, looks absolutely relaxed," correspondent Nadine Liber wrote her Life editors from Rome in March 1962. "In between takes she stays always with Burton, who jokes with her all the time. … Whatever relationship there is between Liz and Burton, they've decided to make the fact they enjoy each other as obvious as the famous nose on Cleo's face."